Fast Food Restaurants may be a good place to get your team to bond, but are they good for business meetings? The informal atmosphere, casual approach and ‘meal’ environment may make your team feel relaxed and open to new ideas, but will they be able to focus or will distractions keep them from paying attention? Join me on a journey into unusual meeting ideas.

Planning a business meeting is generally straight forward. You have your equipment, agenda and goals all to hand as your staff troop in for another company up-date, but what about those who work out in the field? Or what if you want to shake your team up a little to help them think outside the box? Are fast food restaurants a good a place to hold your business meeting instead of the main office?

Obviously fast food restaurants exist for one reason: to serve up fast food so that hunger is satisfied quickly. The cuisine is not too refined and the cost fairly cheap. Table service is not always an option and the surroundings reflect a universal company theme. The atmosphere is relaxed but not too chilled and they don’t want you to linger overly long. There is usually canned music of questionable quality and often a family atmosphere. To a fast food franchise owner, faster turn-over equals faster profits.

So, fast food restaurants – are they good for business meetings?

1) If you are in a mainstream business and planning to move some boundaries or offload new concepts on your staff, a fast food restaurant could be used to your advantage. You could do away with ‘traditional’ business meeting mode and ease your staff into the meeting with an appropriate ice-breaker.

Here are a few pointers to help with business meeting productivity:

* Choose a location far away from competitors! You don’t want to offer them a birds-eye view of your plans.
* Choose the quietest period. Eg. Wait until kids are at school and mums at the shops!
* Pre-warn the manager if your team is large. Make sure there are vegetarian options on offer.
* Find the furthest place away from the evil music!
* Use the franchise model and environment to make comparisons with your new concepts.
* Thank the manager for the use of the premises – especially if you wish to return.
* Enjoy the event! Make sure you take all necessary equipment (agenda, pens, paper etc) so that the meeting can start promptly and end on time.

2) If you are a home business owner or MLM affiliate and time is of the essence, fast food restaurants make an ideal place to slot in a quick, informal business meeting to catch up with your team. Choose a location within easy reach of your team and local schools to aid a quick getaway. Make sure you have assembled all new products and information so that discussions can get underway quickly and end promptly. Enjoy the event!

Business meetings are an unavoidable part of business life, but who said they have to be dull and boring? The trick is to find different locations to turn them into Enjoyable Events! To achieve this, increase your skill base to leave ‘boring’ behind. Learn new methods and strategies that will take your business way out of everyday league and even help you achieve multiple streams of income. That way you won’t be dependent on one business idea alone. I hope “Fast food restaurants – are they good for business meetings? is helpful.

You have received your first commercial deal! If you are like most of the brokers I’ve counseled lately your story is probably similar to the one below:

What does the average “money broker” ( I prefer to use the term capital consultant) do? First, the want to know the loan amount and then they quickly tack on 1-5 points (they assure me they are never greedy) and then they take an executive summary and shoot it around the internet asking lenders if they can close this loan in 14-21 days!

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

These brokers are not taking the correct actions. They are simply planning to fail. Why? They are ignoring the proven strategies used by seasoned commercial brokers.

Want to know the “Secret”?

Before you submit any loan proposal to any lender, you must find out:

The number of deals that lender has closed in the past, and how many they intend to close in the current year.

This is critical to your success! And how do you find out? ASK! Ask the lender by phone or email if they are looking for this type of loan and at the amount your borrower requires. If it is a medical office building ask them how many of these have they closed? And how many do they intend to close this year?

You want to hear: “Oh, we did many of these loans last year and we intend to do many this year!” Don’t send your prime office building to a lender that’s seeking to fund retail centers!

Find lenders and develop a personal relationship with them. Find out what their sweet spot is. In summary, Never submit a loan deal to any lender unless you are able to verify that the lender has closed many of the specific types of deals that your are seeking funding for and that they are currently actively lending.

Seasoned commercial brokers have honed their lender relationships over the years. You can begin this week by contacting at least one lender and interviewing them. At the end of one year you could easily have 52 lenders that you’ve developed a file on and what their lending parameters and preferred property types are.

Few words bring such strong negative reactions as ‘business meeting’. As companies analyze their meeting times against results they often throw up their hands in disgust and conclude that meetings are a waste of time and of no use. Not so fast. While it is true that not having a meeting may be better than having a bad meeting, it does not follow that the business meeting itself is to blame. No matter how good the idea, if those that execute the plan fail then the project itself fails.

‘It’s a bother, it’s a pain, so little gets done, same old stuff, nothing ever happens, it’s always a bore, it lasts too long, and all we do is sit and listen to one or two people drone on about the company’s woes.’ Whine, whine, whine. Case closed.

And that’s the most difficult part; overcoming apathy and boredom from employees and managers that are jaded after continued exposure to bad meetings. It makes starting a meeting difficult and gaining momentum from that meeting even more difficult. The best place to start is to determine what results you would like to have from the meeting. This will guide you in determining the agenda.

The agenda should be written with a time allotted to each item. Meetings should rarely go over an hour especially if they start on time. Start exactly on time and you will ensure promptness at the next meeting. After each agenda item put the person responsible for reporting or moderating that agenda item so that someone ‘owns’ that agenda item. If you are starting business meetings make it a goal to spread the agenda items out to different meeting participants.

The first agenda item should be something light and not nuts and bolts financial. I like to bring up items such as image and attitude here. The last agenda item should be the next meeting’s time and place.

Don’t overload the agenda with too many items or too many heavy stress items if that is avoidable. If the business meeting becomes too negative it can dampen whatever enthusiasm it generates. Some agenda items can be ‘rolled’ over into the next agenda. Try to vary your agenda items for each meeting to keep the agenda fresh. That also means you should be discussing relevant and current topics.

Plan your agenda to end on an upbeat note. You really want the last impression of the meeting to be a positive one. If the meeting ends on a sour note it will leave a sour taste. If participation is important try to get each person present in the meeting to say something. This may be difficult at large meetings but in smaller groups it creates the impression of being a part of the meeting. Meeting participation can be a goal itself.

Some people tend to speak more than others so don’t let one or two people do all the talking. Especially you. It is best to have a moderator or leader. This person is responsible for opening and closing the meeting as well as making certain the agenda moves along in a timely manner.

It is possible to rotate moderators from meeting to meeting. This depends on the meeting participants, their capabilities and their willingness to participate.

Do not expect too much change too fast. It has been my experience that it might take several months of weekly meetings to reach desired results. And it is best not to create unrealistic expectations up front as they may sabotage your efforts.

It’s OK to disagree and disagreements often make for excellent meetings. As the moderator, it is your job to maintain calm and control. If everyone is yawning a good disagreement might even wake them up. After each meeting do a self-evaluation on how the meeting went. What could have done better? What went right? What did not go as expected?

And stay persistent. It is very hard to change either individual or group behavior and that’s what meetings are mostly about. Some call it behavior modification but perhaps changing the range of behaviors is more appropriate. Some call it training or education. And sometimes it’s art and sometimes it’s science but seldom is it predictable.

Often it doesn’t always work as planned. If you have a bad meeting shrug it off and see how you can improve the next one. Also try to stay in the right frame of mind and perspective so you don’t get frustrated too quickly.

There is no right or wrong way to have a meeting; just ways that make meetings more effective. The best strategy to make your meeting effective is to open it up, do what it takes to get participation and work through a relevant and prioritized agenda. Go with your gut and don’t be afraid of taking small risks to keep momentum. Even if you flop folks will see you are sincere and good things will happen.